Euronews

Tens of thousands of Brazilians have turned out in the northeastern city of Recife for the funeral of presidential candidate Eduardo Campos, who was killed in a plane crash last week.

Among the mourners was President Dilma Rousseff and her predecessor, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

Local people queued to pay their respects before the Socialist Party candidate’s coffin and watch an open-air mass.

The 49-year-old former state governor had been running third in the opinion polls.

His death is expected to upset the presidential race. October’s election will see Campos replaced by the well-known environmentalist Marina Silva, who won nearly 20 percent of the votes when she first ran for president four years ago.

Campaigning was stopped and three days of mourning declared for Eduardo Campos, described by the president as a “promising young politician”.

He was seen as offering a third way between the ruling Workers’ Party and the opposition Social Democracy Party.

Campos’ Cessna light plane came down last Wednesday in a residential area of the port city of Santos.

It’s thought bad weather – high winds and rain – may have been to blame for the accident.

All seven people on board, including two pilots and four members of the candidate’s campaign team, were killed.